Common Ground
by Red Witch
Summary: An excerpt from EVOXMJ. Jean and Althea come to an understanding and learn they are more alike than they thought.


**Don't own any X-Men Evolution characters or GI Joe characters. Got it? Good. Here's a one shot that entered my mind that takes place during Evolution XMJ. What were Jean and Althea talking about before Scott found them? **

**Common Ground**

_Fire…_

_Flame…_

_A flame burning everything in sight…_

_The flame turns to water…Water everywhere…_

_"Let's start the operation. Don't bother with the anesthetic…" _

_"NO! PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS!" _

_"MOM! MOMMY!"_

_"PLEASE DON'T KILL MY BABY!" _

_"MOMMY! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" _

"AHHHHH!" Jean sat upright in the hospital bed, startled out of the nightmare. She shook for a moment, not remembering where she was.

Then she remembered. She was in the Infirmary, where she had been ever since the Phoenix Force had possessed her.

And the Phoenix Force was still inside her.

But that wasn't all that possessed her.

There were memories inside her now. Memories that weren't hers. And she remembered where she had gotten them.

Althea was standing by the window looking outside. "About time you woke up."

"Althea…" Jean took a deep breath. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Only half an hour," She shrugged, still not looking at her. Her long black and blue streaked hair seemed to glisten in the sunlight. "Bad dream?"

"You could say that," Jean told her. "I've been having trouble sleeping since we got back."

"If I went through what you did I'd have trouble too," Althea remarked.

"I think you already did."

Althea turned around and looked at her. Her blue eyes betrayed no emotion. "So you **do** remember?"

"Yeah," Jean knew there was no point in hiding it. She had remembered seeing Althea's memories of when her water control powers emerged. Memories of her unborn brother about to be dissected until Althea triggered her powers. And those powers killed every Cobra agent in that base.

These were memories Jean never knew Althea had. Memories she never had access to before.

Then she thought, _When did I ever have **any** access to Althea's memories?_

"I just realized something," Jean said. "I've never really been able to look inside your mind until now."

"So you **have** tried?" Althea raised an eyebrow. "Snooping I see?"

"Well…uh," Jean gulped. "When we first met I…uh…"

"Don't worry," Althea chuckled. "I won't hold that against you. As a ninja I completely understand about checking out one's opponent and trying to find out their strengths and weaknesses."

"It's not like I found anything…" Jean weakly protested.

"Then Stormshadow and the Blind Master did their job well of teaching me how to conceal my thoughts," Althea grinned. "It's one of the first skills a ninja learns. Well that and how to fall down without breaking your neck."

"Concealing thoughts?" Jean asked.

"You didn't think you psychics were the only ones who could read minds did you?" Althea asked. "A ninja learns to read the thoughts of a person through body language, facial expressions. Even the lack of facial expressions can be a dead giveaway sometimes. You have to also learn how to think like your opponent but never give him a chance to know that you can do so."

"Yeah I get that but still…" Jean thought.

"Let's just say we go through a lot of tough mental training too," Althea said. "So of course we'd have our own mental shields."

"You've been through that before…" Jean said without thinking. "The mental training. When you powers first…" She covered her mouth. "I'm sorry…I didn't…"

"Yeah, that's kind of why I wanted to talk to you," Althea sighed. "Okay first of all…I didn't purposely let you read my mind in order for you to blab my past all over the Institute. People tend to get a bit nervous when they hear you killed 29 people the first time you used your powers."

"No…" Jean said softly. "I guess not. Do…Do the other Misfits know?"

"Most of 'em," Althea shrugged. "Shooter obviously doesn't and the babies well you know. And I think Professor X might know but he hasn't said anything or given any indication that he does. Hate to admit it but he might have made a pretty good ninja."

"And now I do," Jean said. "Why? Why did you show me? Why did you let me see?"

"Besides the fact you were going to burn down New York City?"

"I wasn't going to burn down the **whole **city, just the Hellfire Club."

"And the people inside."

"Yeah…" Jean admitted. "I would have done it too. I would have killed…" 

"I know you would have. Not that I don't applaud your initiative of knocking off a few human cockroaches, but…I didn't want you to go through what I did," Althea said. "Quite honestly I didn't think you could handle it."

"You're right. I couldn't," Jean admitted with a shudder. "How did you…?"

"Hey it wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me either, but then again I had an advantage," Althea admitted. "I was trained from birth to be a ninja. A ninja's life is filled with death and deception. I always knew I would kill when I had to. I just had no idea I could be so damn efficient and brutal at it. Neither did anyone else. It was a shock."

"That's horrible," Jean recoiled. "I mean, knowing that you would have to kill someday...at that young an age..."

Althea took a deep breath. "Yeah but knowing that didn't prepare me enough. The first time is always the hardest. Especially when it's so many...At least I didn't take out any innocent people and saved my family. For all the good that it did."

"You blame yourself for your mother leaving…" Jean realized.

"Wouldn't you?" Althea asked. "When your powers emerged, did your mother look at you with fear in her eyes?"

Jean looked downwards. "Yes…I knew she loved me…But I heard her thoughts. She was terrified of me. Of what I could do. She still is on some level. I can always feel it."

"Hey at least she didn't disown you," Althea pointed out.

"No, she didn't want to let me go to the Institute at first but she was just so terrified…" Jean sighed. "That counts for something at least."

"That counts for **everything,"** Althea told her and sat down on the end of the bed. "You have no idea how lucky you are your family stood by you. Even I'd give my left arm to have my mother back. Well sometimes…"

"If I had used my powers like that…" Jean thought. "And my parents found out…That would have really frightened…Would that be the one thing that would break our family apart?"

"I hate to say it, but that probably might have happened," Althea shrugged. "Like I said, people don't always react well to killing sprees. Even if the jerks do deserve it. All the more reason not go nuts like that. If I were you, I wouldn't mention that part to them. For their own good you understand."

"You mean for **my** own good. Not their own good."

"Well…" Althea said. There was an awkward silence in the room until Jean spoke again.

"I've always judged mutants on how they use their powers," Jean said. "Saying that we should always use them for the good of mankind. And what's the first thing I try to do when I get really powerful? I shut a woman's brain down, put her in a coma and try to kill a room full of people including my friends just because I was ticked off."

"To be fair they were trying to kill us at the time," Althea pointed out.

"I didn't do it for them, or you or even Scott…" Jean admitted. "I did it for me…"

"Really?" Althea raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to hurt them because they hurt me," Jean said.

"You were acting like a human being."

"I was acting like a hypocrite," Jean said harshly. "I thought I knew who I was! I thought I was…"

"Better than everyone else because you didn't misuse your powers? Tried to be perfect all the time? Never killed anyone even in self-defense…" Althea made a list. "Set yourself on a pedestal just because you had a few lucky breaks? Am I missing anything?"

"In other words I've been a world class bitch huh?" Jean looked at her.

"You said it, not me," Althea shrugged.

"Well so have you," Jean pointed out.

"Yeah but I've got the pedigree for it," Althea pointed out. "Hello, Shipwreck? Remember?"

"True," Jean smirked. She took a breath. "I've got a lot of apologizing to do haven't I? To Lance, Fred…Wanda…"

"Yeah but don't do it all at once," Althea warned. "I mean some people already think you've gone nuts. You start saying sorry to everyone they'll really think you've gone off the deep end."

Jean started to laugh. "Yeah I'm a model of stability." She took a deep breath. "You know…it's not so bad as I thought it would be."

"What's not so bad?"

"Not being normal," Jean told her. "For years I kept telling myself that I was just a normal girl with an extraordinary gift…"

"Living with abnormal friends," Althea added. "Doing weird things and getting into impossible situations. Like going into outer space, fighting demons and terrorists at your school dances, fighting giant robots, meeting sorcerers, witches, fairies, Dracula..."

"Okay, I was in denial! I **get** it!" Jean snapped.

"About time."

"Hey nothing like seeing the world through an all powerful cosmic force to put things in perspective," Jean said. "I'm not normal and I never will be. Even for a mutant I am weird. There I've said it. Happy?"

"Very," Althea grinned and folded her arms. "And now…"

"Now…I don't feel so bad," Jean shrugged. "I mean I always thought that once I believed I was…Well not normal, I'd lose it. I mean I did kind of lose it when I first got my powers. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah I think every mutant knows what you mean," Althea nodded. "Although I think even for mutants I think our lives are even weirder than normal. Whatever that is."

"You think? The whole aliens, robots, demons and Dracula thing didn't convince you? Now who's in denial?" Jean asked.

"Good one," Althea grinned. "So you won't..."

"You don't say anything to anyone about me wanting to wipe out the whole city of New York because I was just angry and I won't say a word about you."

"I thought you only wanted to wipe out the Hellfire Club?"

"Yeah well we both know it would have gotten out of hand," Jean shrugged.

"**Would** have gotten out of hand?" Althea asked. "You demolished an entire building and litterally turned it into ashes."

"Okay so it did get a little out of hand," Jean shrugged. "I think I have anger issues."

"No, really?" Althea mocked. "You think? If anyone should have anger issues it's me! I mean my mom's the one who ran off with another guy leaving me to raise three insane sisters, my baby brother and my lunatic father all by myself. And out of all of them I can honestly say Claudius was the most mature one of the lot!"

"I don't know if I could have done that," Jean sighed. "How did you handle it?"

"Dunno, just did," Althea shrugged. "Course a lot of the Joes helped and stuff. But what you do isn't that much different. I mean you're teaching the younger mutants and training them while going to college. Med School. That can't be easy."

"Not exactly a walk in the park," Jean made a grin. "But then again I don't have to change any diapers."

"Well neither did I once Toddles and the boys moved in," Althea grinned back. "You should have seen the first day Pop taught them how to do it. I still have the videotape."

"Now that I'd like to see," Jean laughed. "Better yet, try to teach Scott how to do it right!"

"Amen to that girlfriend," Althea joined in the laugher. "Amen to that."


End file.
